UPDATED (21/5/21): Residents "Very Angry" As "Supine" Mendip Council "Bent Over Backwards" To Glastonbury Organisers On Pilton Event

 

Worthy Farm, Pilton

UPDATED (21/5/21): The Piltonians residents group have issued an updated Statement. It is in full below under "Second Version". The first version has been removed at the request of the residents group.

These are the views of the Piltonians residents group and not necessarily those of Somerset Independents. We respond below.

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Mendip District Council has given the go-ahead for a huge 50,000 people event at Worthy Farm, Pilton - some time in September, perhaps...

This is despite local residents' anger and concern over it being a "super-spreader" event as a result of the Indian Covid-19 variant that is of increasing concern to public health. Now residents are considering whether to lodge an appeal.

Residents said that: 

"People are very angry. Mendip bent over backwards to give GFEL everything they wanted."

and

"The relationship between Mendip and GFEL is far too cosy."

The full Press Release from the Piltonians residents group is below. The views expressed are of the Piltonians residents group and not necessarily those of Somerset Independents. 

Responding for Somerset Independents, Andrew Pope says: 

"We want local residents to be heard, but as we have proved many times over, Mendip District Council prefers to ignore residents in favour of dodgy deals behind closed doors. 

Even Mendip's own External Auditor Ernst and Young has ordered them to be transparent in how Mendip operates and spends millions of pounds of public money.

There is a lot of merit to what residents are saying and have been saying - we saw and heard what happened at the Licensing Sub-Committee. It was shameful.

Where was the local Pilton Mendip councillor Tory Nigel Hewitt-Cooper? Was he representing local residents.? No, as usual, he was nowhere to be seen.

Events must be safe and impact on local residents must be managed. But Mendip have not done that on this site. If they had, residents would not be so angry.

As they say in their statement, now residents are considering whether to take the matter further by lodging an appeal."

(Second Version) Updated Press Release From Piltonians Residents Group

 

Anger as Council gives Glastonbury Festival new event licence

Mendip District Council has approved a new two-day event for 50,000 people on the Worthy Farm site which will be held this September and in subsequent years. The decision comes just days after Glastonbury Festival Events Limited (GFEL) received a £900,000 government handout [1] to compensate for the cancellation of the Festival owing to Covid -19. Nevertheless GFEL point blank refused to limit the license to one or two years.

The event decision came despite Mendip’s failure to re-determine its licensing policy [2] by 6 January 2021. Mendip’s principal lawyer, Lesley Dolan, described the situation as “somewhat regrettable”.

Opponents of the proposed event say Mendip’s decision is not legitimate and is the result of an unfair process from the start. Official notices were not posted in prominent locations such as village notice boards and Mendip failed to provide crucial information. Most local people knew nothing about the proposed concert, giving them little chance to reach their own opinions. Unbelievably Mendip have increased the noise limit to 70db which is 5db higher than for the Festival itself.

At the hearing some proposals were not on the published agenda, others arriving out of the blue at the last minute. Parts appeared briefly on a screen at the online meeting or were read out by Mendip Officers. Despite knowing this would be the case, Mendip went ahead with the hearing without any consideration of the critical issues of non-compliance.

GFEL hasn’t explained how it will get 50,000 people, and potentially over 1,000 vehicles, on and off the site on two successive days. Nor how long the expected 10,000 workers will be on site, and where they will stay. GFEL says it will not be erecting the usual anti-climb fence - this will bring back bad memories for locals of ticketless people hunting around the village for ways to gain access. In future years they will only receive 120 days notice of this major invasion of their village.

The potential risk from Covid-19 was not adequately addressed at the hearing. There are fears that this concert will turn into a super-spreader event. This all comes as a growing number of events are planned at the Worthy Farm site including live streaming and camping.

Any protections for the community are being left for the event management plan and planning decisions [3] sometime closer to the event. Pressure to give the go-ahead will then mean that villagers’ voices will be heard even less.

Mendip has bent over backwards to give everything GFEL wanted. The relationship between Mendip and GFEL is far too cosy. Mendip may well be worried about the legal costs of standing up to this multi-million pound commercial organisation. People are very angry.

The only surprise is that it took Mendip four days to reach this utterly predictable decision.

For further information please contact piltonians@aol.com

Editor’s Notes:
[1] On 2 April GFEL was awarded £900,000 grant as part of the second tranche of UK government’s Culture Recovery Fund.
[2] Mendip District Council has breached its statutory requirement, under Section 5 of Licensing Act 2003, to determine and publish its Licensing Policy every five years. Its previous Policy lapsed on 6 Jan 2021.
[3] GFEL has planning permission for its usual Festival but only during the period 1 May to 31 Aug. Outside this period Worthy Farm must be used for agricultural purposes. It is now widely accepted that this two day concert will require planning permission before it can go ahead.